Did you know Notepad++ has a built-in plugin
manager? Well, it does! We have talked about Notepad++ in the past. It's a
powerful, versatile text editor for Windows, with a colossal, mind-boggling range of capabilities. I like to
dub it the Firefox of text editors, due to its extremely extensible and modular nature.

Another thing that makes Notepad++ fit well with the Firefox metaphor is the self-update check capability. But
this goes more than just updating the editor's core files. Indeed, just like Firefox, Notepad++ lets you update
its plugins from within the program itself, without leaving the comfort of its use. Follow me.

Introducing Notepad++ Plugin Manager

The Plugin Manager hides in the Plugins sub-menu.

And you have a rather familiar interface.

The interface has three tabs, with the Available tab open by default, listing all of the installable plugins,
by name, category, available version, and stability. To see what each one offers, simply click on it. If you
want the plugin, click Install in the right bottom corner.

After installing a new plugin, you will need to restart the program:

Similarly, you can browse the installed plugins or check for updates.

BTW, like Firefox, it performs a basic plugin check on launch, recommending disabling unsafe or unstable
plugins. Very, very handy. This is quite important if you use Notepad++ as your HTML editor or for code
development, where stability is of paramount importance. Here's a handful of screenshots taken on another
Notepad++ blessed host:

Conclusion

Notepad++ proves that it is really a tremendous tool, each day revealing another highly useful functionality
you would not expect from a program that is essentially a text editor. Combined with a horde of innovative and
productive features, Notepad++ makes working with thousands of files in all sorts of formats, be they notes,
HTML code or shell scripts, a real treat.

If you're a Windows user and would like a shot at a whole new level of text processing, you should definitely
try Notepad++.